Break My Heart Right
by Phelps
Summary: Shikamaru has been friends with the siblings Ilaria and Costa since they had met in school, right after the Italian family found refuge in Japan in order to flee the Civil War raging in their homeland. Now they are adults and things won't get easier when feelings come to the surface and with Ilaria being restless. A story of friendship, mastering problems & growing up. AU.
1. ch1: When Breathing feels like Drowning

_Author's note:_ Welcome to my first published story, folks :D Finally, I feel ready to share my work with you. I would really like to hear what you think of it, constructive criticism is most welcomed. Please keep in mind that English is not my native language, so I may need your help considering grammar/ spelling mistakes. The title was inspired by the James Bay song. Without further ado, please enjoy!

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own any character or anything related to the Naruto-Universe. I do own my own characters and the plot.

* * *

**When Breathing feels like Drowning**

He sat alone in his dark apartment and stared out of the open window at the dark sky outside, dotted with sparkling stars. A gentle summer night's breeze swept into the room, ruffling his spiky ponytail. This soft touch of air caused Shikamaru to snap out of his trance-like state.

How long did he sit there on the windowsill? And why exactly had he not even bothered to turn the lights on? Last time he checked it was early evening and the sun had just begun to set. He must have forgotten his head somewhere. But suddenly reality hit him hard again, bringing him down to earth at shocking speed, his heart rate picking up immediately.

_"She is back"_, Ino's words kept playing in his mind over and over again, like they probably did in the past hours. She lived in Konoha again, within his reach. But what does this mean? He learned about it just hours ago, before he fell into an exaggerated emotional shock. The scene replayed in Shikamaru's mind.

* * *

_He had returned from a two-month-long mission three days ago and spent most of his time sleeping. Today was a fine day on which he finally didn't feel exhausted anymore; since the start of the mission, he hadn't got much rest. First traveling to Amegakure, spending nights on the road, then preparing to attack bandits which kept raiding the smaller settlements on the outskirts of the village, and finally pulling the whole thing trough. 'What a drag', Shikamaru thought and sighed, rubbing the aching muscles on his neck. This was in the past. Today, he just wanted to visit old friends, to check on them, to see what they were up to - and of course to catch up on things he missed while he was away._

_So he walked the dirt streets of Konohagakure, inhaling the scent of flowers and trees, listening to the rustling of leaves, feeling the blazing summer sun on his exposed face and forearms. It felt especially hot, but it was noon, so this wasn't unusual; after realizing that fact his stomach rumbled right on the call. 'I know someone who wouldn't say no to a meal if it meant his life.', his thoughts wandered to his old teammate, the feet acting on their own accord, leading him down the street._

_By the time he finished talking with Choji and filling his stomach incidentally, it was well past five o'clock in the afternoon. The weather was warm and pleasant, so Shikamaru spent some time by the river cloud-gazing, the lush green grass tickling his skin and the babble of the water lulling him into a light slumber. Softly he awoke, seeing that the sun had begun to set. Stretching and yawning he rose from the lawn, heading in the rough direction of home. He stopped in front of Yamanaka Flowers – the glassed entrance wide open, Ino rushing in and out, carrying multiple flower arrangements and loading them onto a cart._

"_Hey Ino", Shikamaru called and waved, before making his way over to the silver-blonde. Her head searched briefly for the source of his voice, finding him on the other side of the street, coming towards her. "Shikamaru! You're back, how was your mission?", Ino greeted him lightly. "Troublesome" was all he had to answer, making her laugh because she had expected this coming. A moment later he looked at the vehicle, loaded up to the edge with flowers, but most of all bushes and smaller trees and seedlings. _

"_What in the world are you doing? Are you moving?", he asked with a confused look on his face, turning back to face Ino. She giggled, slapping his upper arm. "No, of course not, it's a delivery I gotta make."_

"_But who would need so many plants?", he had to ask bewildered. Suddenly Ino's eyes grew the sizes of saucers while she inhaled a deep breath without releasing it. She looked… shocked. Why would she look shocked? What is going on all of a sudden? Everything seemed perfectly fine two minutes ago, he must have missed something._

"_Oh my God Shikamaru! You don't know! Didn't you hear the news?! No, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at me like THAT!", she exclaimed. He looked like she had grown twelve heads. "What the fuck are you talking about?!" Did he really need to be this clear?_

"_Ilaria and Costa got back from their trip a week ago! Costa got a huge apartment once he got back__ \- __the view must be amazing, at least this is what Ilaria told me__ \- __but she bought a house on the bank of Naka River, just a few blocks from where their father lives. She got a beautiful piece of a garden there, so she came by to chat and ask me if I could make something out of it. She invited me over, and believe me, it is SO breath-taking! I got so excited, I had to start right away!", Ino beamed and babbled and rambled, but Shikamaru has long zoomed out. He didn't really hear her going on and on about Ilaria's garden, all he could hear was the blood rushing and pumping in his ears. He was sure he paled, it sure felt so. His heart rate took on an alarming rate. She was here? In Konoha? He wasn't sure he heard right, so he had to stop Ino's rambling._

"_What did you say?" This was too unprecise – another try. "What's with Ilaria and Costa?", he subtly took a deep breath, to calm his nerves. 'Don't act so nervous.'_

"_Ilaria and Costa are back in Konoha. Since last week. They want to settle here again.", Ino spoke slowly as if he could not follow her words. Then she noticed how his face and body changed. "Are you not feeling well, Shikamaru?" Concern laced her voice._

"_I'm feeling fine, but I gotta go home now. I'll see you tomorrow.", he responded stoically, leaving her to her work without another word._

* * *

When he walked through his door hours ago the air felt heavy, too heavy to breathe; like breathing underwater.

So he opened the window completely and sat on the windowsill leaning his head on the frame, staring out, gathering his thoughts. Right, that's what has happened.

So Ilaria was here again, with Costa, her brother. More like her other half, he liked to address since he first met the siblings in school. It was more than fifteen years ago.

He had to take a deep breath as his brain began to swam with memories, agitated by all kinds of different emotions.


	2. ch2: Lessons to Learn

**Lessons to Learn**

Fifteen years ago, it was a Monday to be precise, Shikaku and Yoshino brought their son to school. Shikamaru was nearly seven years old and had started going to school half a year ago. The said boy walked in between his father and his mother, looking sceptical. Now that holidays were over he needed to go back to learning, even if he didn't know how to feel about this certain fact. He knew most of the children in his class from preschool, but somehow, they were behaving entirely different now. Ino and Sakura were no friends anymore, everyone seemed to watch Sasuke Uchiha with weary eyes and Naruto was even more irritating than before.

Spending his time in school soon turned out to be nothing but a drag – and the first year wasn't even over, March had just begun.

As his parents stopped walking to look down at him, he was ripped from his thoughts. All of a sudden they stood by the huge tree in front of the school building, which had a swing dangling from one of its strong branches. The grey sky shown through the crown, rid of any leaves after a cold winter.

"Don't make this face, you will live through this, darling.", his mother grinned at him, obviously amused by her son's complaining about his classmates. Just an hour ago, while they were all seated around the breakfast table, Shikamaru made his point clear how much he was annoyed by it.

"Your mother is right, son. You cannot get along with everyone you meet in your life. You just have to accept the people surrounding you – with the flaws that come with them.", his father padded his head while advising him. "Now get inside, it's already late."

"Have a nice day nonetheless.", his mother leaned down to kiss her son's cheek, which he immediately returned by rubbing his face clean. "I know I know, but I'm big now, mom. You don't have to do this all the time.", the not-at-all-big boy looked slightly ashamed, letting his eyes flicker across the schoolyard to see if anyone had noticed the incident.

"Oh baby boy, I will always have to do this, I am your mother after all.", Yoshino grinned affectionately down at him, entirely enjoying to irritate Shikamaru further by using the nickname.

With a shaking head and no idea what his mother really meant by saying things like that he was off and went inside the building, searching for the sign "101" hanging above the door to his classroom. When he found it Shikamaru slipped inside, heading for his seat in the middle of the rows of desks and benches. With a look at the clock, he confirmed that it really was time for class to start as the bell rang just in time.

Most of the children were still talking, joking and shouting as the door slid open again, revealing a tall man with his brown hair in a high ponytail – Iruka, their teacher. But he was not alone.

By his side stood two children, a boy and a girl, the boy with brown hair so dark it almost seemed black. The girl, on the other hand, was blonde, making the contrast perfect, but both shared the facial expression that they would rather be in hell than here right now. _'This is going to be interesting'_, Shikamaru thought.

"Hey hey, everyone, calm down!", Iruka had to shout above the noise to obtain a hearing. The majority of the class then realized that the man had entered the room and began to settle into their seats, but the noise only died to complete silence once every child took notice of the two new faces among them. Satisfied with this outcome, Iruka started talking again.

"I hope all of you had a great holiday, so welcome back. Now, you may have noticed that I'm not alone. I want to introduce Costa and Ilaria Grimaldi.", he gestured first to the boy, then to the girl, "they are siblings and not only new to the class but also new to our village and our country. This is important, so please listen carefully:", he made a short pause for the effect, "I wish for you to understand that this is a very difficult situation for not only us as teachers or you as pupils but most of all for Costa and Ilaria. They don't know anybody here, not even our language. This is going to be challenging, but still, I trust you are good girls and boys. Be nice, help them – maybe you will gain two more friends." Shikamaru sensed a slight unease in Iruka's voice, but also sincere concern regarding the issue. Was the teacher nervous? Surely this whole situation was new to all involved.

"Did you hear me?", Iruka asked the still quiet class in front of him. The children looked at each other; no one uttered a word. After a few seconds, the pupils nodded.

"Good.", the man smiled sincerely, almost like a burden was lifted off his shoulders. "Now you two, make yourself comfortable." He gestured to the spare chairs beside the window. The siblings quickly understood without knowing his words and went over to the desk to take a seat.

Naruto was, of course, the first to approach them right after the first class has ended, blathering and beaming and communicating with his hands and feet. Kiba stood by his side lecturing him how he was doing it all wrong, that no one had a clue what he was trying to say and that he should do it more properly. The siblings looked wary at first, but once they sensed the good nature of the boys they started to answer them in their native language, babbling back in Italian.

Iruka, who sat at his table at the front of the classroom to prepare the following lesson, watched the four children conversing, clearly amused because they obviously couldn't understand what the opposition was saying, but that fact didn't seem to bother anyone.

He felt relieve wash over him – everything would work out fine. Neither the father of Ilaria and Costa had to be worried, nor had the teacher.

The last thing he wanted was that someone under his protection became the feeling of being left out just like Naruto did most of his life.

Acceptance and tolerance were things worth fighting for and he would do everything within his power to make his students understand that.

The following days both new classmates began to speak their first Japanese words already.

'_Children really are like sponges at this age'_, he thought, astounded.

Within the next weeks, Ilaria and Costa became a part of the class slowly but surely.

* * *

It wasn't before April that Shikamaru interacted with Ilaria for the first time.

Iruka had the bright idea to throw the class together in random groups of two in order to improve 'teamwork'. That was how the boy with the spiky ponytail ended up with the blonde newcomer, who looked over her shoulder at her counterpart. Costa got paired with Naruto, obviously having a lot of fun, giggling and scribbling on a piece of paper laying before them.

Shikamaru was slightly nervous; he wasn't that good at words, to begin with, much less with words belonging to a foreign language, but he at least had to try.

"Hey, my name is Shikamaru.", he started cautiously, eyeing her reaction. She just smiled. "I am Ilaria. Nice to meet you.", was her response in Japanese, although he could make out her accent. "Do you know what this exercise is about?", she added shyly. Probably she hadn't understood.

The boy sighed, but then began to explain the task at hand nevertheless. He spoke in his mother tongue without second thought, however once he saw the look of confusion on her face he started to underpin his words with pointing his fingers and drawings.

This was a troublesome affair for sure, but luckily the girl was quite clever; so they managed.

The pair improved understanding each other by the day – with Ilaria learning the new language and Shikamaru reading her reactions and gestures.

* * *

And so it came that the two siblings became friends with Shikamaru, Naruto and Kiba, Ino and Sakura, Choji and Hinata, even with Sasuke and Shino.

It just happened, like it had happened back in preschool when the group had met for the first time.

One came to the other.


End file.
